FGI France 2015 (French Internet Governance Forum) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

1. On 2 June 2015, the second FGI France met at Université Paris Descartes, opened by Axelle Lemaire, France's Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, with attendance on the order of 1,000.
2. An opening round table on the global governance agenda was followed by eight workshops spanning platform dominance, surveillance, post-mortem digital rights, the sharing economy and francophone governance.
3. Held amid the IANA transition talks and France's contested intelligence bill, it showed a national IGF drawing the government's digital chief into open dialogue with citizens.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on FGI France 2015 (French Internet Governance Forum) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

📍 The series-verification report lists the CESE as venue, but both the ISOC France announcement and the official FGI France programme give Université Paris Descartes; this file follows the primary sources (the host city, Paris, is unchanged)

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. Opening Round Table — Reading the Global Governance Agenda from Paris

Sessions: Opening plenary "La Gouvernance de l'Internet : discussions en cours au niveau mondial" (9:00–10:15)

• Axelle Lemaire, Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, opened the forum; with the IANA transition and WSIS+10 review under way in 2015, the opening round table mapped the state of global negotiations [1][3]
• Panellists combined government, parliament and the technical community: Nicolas Chagny (ISOC France president), David Martinon (Foreign Ministry special representative for information-society negotiations), Senator Catherine Morin-Desailly and Mathieu Weill (Afnic CEO) [1][3]
• The closing plenary was steered by Camille Vaziaga (Renaissance Numérique) and Sébastien Bachollet (honorary president of ISOC France, former ICANN Board member) [1][3]

2. Platform Power and New Economies — From Network Effects to Sharing

Sessions: Workshops "Effets de réseau et situations de dominance", "Responsabilité des plateformes", "Economie collaborative et partage"

• The morning "network effects and dominance" and afternoon "platform accountability" workshops anticipated the European debate on how to confront big-platform market power [1][3]
• The sharing-economy workshop, moderated by Startingdot president Godefroy Jordan, asked "new ways of working in the 21st century?" as collaborative platforms boomed [1][3]
• A parallel workshop, "Big Data et Objets Connectés", tackled connected devices and data handling [1][3]

3. Surveillance and Post-Mortem Digital Rights — Under the Shadow of the Intelligence Bill

Sessions: Workshops "Surveillance" and "Droit numérique des morts"

• The surveillance workshop examined algorithmic security — as France's intelligence bill (loi renseignement), expanding surveillance powers, entered its final parliamentary stretch (adopted 24 June 2015) [1][3]
• The "digital rights of the deceased" workshop, moderated by ISOC France vice-president Matthieu Camus, raised the then-novel question of what happens to social-media profiles and personal data after death [1][3]
• Both threads fed the debate that surfaced in France's 2016 Digital Republic Act, which included provisions on post-mortem data [1][3]

4. Francophone Governance and a Solidarity Internet — The Inclusion Homework

Sessions: Workshops "La gouvernance en français" and "Internet solidaire"

• The "governance in French" workshop, moderated by ISOC France vice-president Yves Miezan-Ezo, asked how francophone perspectives could weigh in a global debate dominated by English [1][3]
• "Internet solidaire", moderated by Afnic deputy CEO Pierre Bonis, asked how digital technology can narrow the social divide, making inclusion a headline theme [1][3]
• A case of a national IGF localising the global forum's core themes of access gaps and linguistic diversity [1][3]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What was the highlight of this edition?

A. Digital-affairs minister Axelle Lemaire opening the forum, with government, parliament and the technical community sharing one round table on the global governance negotiations of 2015.

Q. Any unusual topics?

A. "Digital rights of the deceased" — what happens to your accounts and data after death. Cutting-edge for 2015, and France's Digital Republic Act picked up the theme the following year.

Q. Why does it matter?

A. Platform power, surveillance versus privacy, and digital legacies all became mainstream policy questions worldwide. FGI France 2015 shows a national IGF debating them in real time, alongside a live legislative fight over surveillance.

What Is France IGF? (for first-time readers)

France IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2015 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.

Sources & References

1. FGI France 2015 : le programme — FGI France（公式Medium） (accessed 2026-07-11)
2. Second Forum de la Gouvernance de l'Internet 2015 le 2 juin 2015 à Paris — Internet Society France (accessed 2026-07-11)
3. Programme du FGI France 2015 le 2 juin 2015 à Paris（現在はリンク切れ・検索インデックス経由で内容確認） — isoc.fr (accessed 2026-07-11)
4. Forum sur la Gouvernance de l'Internet France（公式サイト・沿革） — igf-france.fr (accessed 2026-07-11)

Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.

Related links

• IGF official (NRI list): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives
• Japan IGF: https://japanigf.jp/
• Yuki Nakazawa's blog: https://nkzw.jp/category/igf/

Revision History

Rev. 1 — published 18 June 2015, 12:00 (Article published)

Rev. 2 — updated 16 July 2026, 20:09 (Fully revised into the in-depth edition: added the 3-line summary, minutes digest, short talk, source list and diagrams (all quotes verified against the listed sources))

— 中澤祐樹